“Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptised with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” These words marked the birth of Christianity. This was the first time that Jewish believers following Jesus Christ witnessed the Holy Spirit being poured out on Gentiles. The dove-like Holy Spirit had entered the members of a Gentile, non-Jewish, family and they had all spoken in tongues. The speaking in tongues had been the visible outward evidence of an inner process going on in these people when they heard Peter preach the truth he knew about Jesus Christ. The people were being visited inwardly by this Holy Spirit from God who comes in Jesus’ name. It was like a well of water within them welling up into the uttering of words of mystery of God in languages they had never learned, similar to what had happened to Peter and the Jewish followers of Jesus. This is what it is all about. The ministry of Jesus Christ had started years before all this with a spirit visible in the form of a gentle dove descending from God upon him at his baptism. When Jesus left after rising from the dead and returned to God it was so that this Holy Spirit could be given in his place, to followers of his teachings who believed in him and his name. The same spirit had then entered the inner being of these disciples. It caused them to praise God in languages they had never learned and do other things such as turn those words of foreign or angelic languages back into their native tongue so they could be understood and get the benefit of the mystery worshipful meaning. Now Peter was witnessing this overflow to non-Jews too. These people were filled with the presence within them of this heaven-sent dove-like spirit to lead them. The spirit would lead them to speak truthfully to each other, to control anger, to stay faithful in relationships, and lead them into all truth. Now it remained for them to be baptised into this new way. They were baptised in water in Jesus’ name.
